Fergie's Tech Blog

UK: Internet Pranksters Leave Government Red-Faced

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

A British government minister may have thought he was keeping up with modern trends when he put a draft policy on the Internet, but was soon left red-faced when hundreds of pranksters defaced it.

Weblogging, techno-savvy Environment Secretary David Miliband, tipped as a bright young spark in Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration, had put a draft "environment contract" on his department's website, setting out social responsibilities for people, government and businesses.

But embarrassed administrators were forced to haul it down after more than 170 cyber-jokers trashed the document by adding in bizarre paragraphs for fun.

The page used "Wiki" editing techniques, which allow readers to alter the content.

A heading of "Who are the parties to the environmental contract?" became, "Where is the party for the environmental contract? Can I come? Will there be cake? Hooray!"

posted by Fergie @ 9/01/2006 02:33:00 PM